1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color converting method, a color converting apparatus, and a recording medium storing program for converting image data for producing an image of appropriate colors on a first print into image data for producing an image of appropriate colors on a second print.
2. Description of the Related Art
With significant advances in inkjet technology in recent years, it has become possible for inkjet printers to produce large color prints of high quality at high speeds. Inkjet printers are not only popular for private or home use, but also are widely used in commercial applications nowadays. Inkjet printers make it possible to print on POP (Point Of Purchase) posters, wall posters, large-size mediums such as outdoor advertisements and billboards, roll mediums, and thick hard mediums.
There are a wide variety of print mediums (hereinafter also referred to as “mediums”) available for use in prints to meet various commercial demands. For example, such print mediums include paper mediums such as synthetic paper known as YUPO, thick paper, aluminum-evaporated paper, etc., resin mediums such as vinyl chloride, PET, etc., and tarpaulin paper made of woven fiber cloth with synthetic resin films applied to both surfaces thereof.
Since advertisement prints are expected to be effective to arouse consumer's motivation to buy advertised products through the consumer's visual sensation, the finish of the colors of the prints is of particular importance. Heretofore, there have been disclosed various color matching technologies, such as a method of generating an ICC (International Color Consortium) profile, a method of adjusting designated colors, etc., as means for print color managing.
Advertisement prints are displayed in a variety of places including outdoor areas, indoor areas, and spotlighted exhibition sites. Generally, the spectral characteristics (spectral energy distribution) of environmental light as an observational light source for prints vary depending on different places where the prints are displayed.
If different observational light sources are used with a print, then since the spectral characteristics of lights that are emitted from different observational light sources and which ultimately reach the retina of a human observer are different, the appearance (color impression) of the print that is visually perceived by the observer tends to vary depending on the observational light sources, although this tendency may differ from observer to observer. As a consequence, if the observational environment in which a print is produced, i.e., the location where the printer is installed, and the'observational environment in which the print is displayed differ greatly from each other, then the print may possibly fail to exhibit desired colors.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-218266 discloses an apparatus and method for acquiring light source characteristics of an environment in which an image is observed, and for performing a color matching process in view of chromatic adaptation to environmental light (see paragraphs [0008] through [0012] of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-218266).
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 07-154623 discloses a system for combining a plurality of profiles of different data attributes into profiles for input and output devices. For example, parameters concerning a paper (see paragraph [0047] and FIG. 4 of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 07-154623) are set as a print output condition profile, and parameters concerning an observational light source (see paragraph [0049] and FIG. 6 of the publication) are set as an observational condition profile. Image data can easily be processed depending on the type of observational light source and the type of medium used (see paragraph [0086] of the publication).